10 Homemade Playdough Recipes

A little bit of everything here from basic cooked, non-cooked, glitter to koolaid to jello.

Homemade Playdough Recipes

Plain Old Playdough Recipe #1

Picture of Homemade Playdough - Tipnut.comIngredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS cream of tartar
1 TBS oil
food coloring

Directions:

  • Heat all ingredients in a saucepan, slow to medium heat. Stir continuously. Once dough is at the consistency you want, remove from heat. Cool before using. *high salt content so please keep playdough away from pets.

Recipe #2

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/4 cup salt
2 TBS cream of tartar
1 TBS vegetable oil food coloring (about 2 tsp)

Directions:

  • In a medium sized pot, mix the first three ingredients: flour, salt, cream of tartar. Then add water, food coloring and the oil. Stir over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Once the dough forms a ball, remove from heat. Allow to cool. Once cool knead the dough on a floured surface several times. Then store in an airtight container or sealed plastic bag and place in refrigerator until needed. *high salt content so please keep away from pets.

Recipe #3

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp oil
food coloring

Directions:

  • Cook all ingredients together over low heat for 3 minutes, stirring well. Remove from heat and cool. Store in airtight container or sealed plastic bag.

Koolaid Playdough – Recipe #4

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup salt
3 TBS oil
1 package of Koolaid (use the color of your choice)

Directions:

  • Mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat for a few minutes until dough forms the consistency you want. Remove from heat and cool. Keep in airtight container, refrigerate until used.

Another Kool-aid Playdough – Recipe #5

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 cups water
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup koolaid
2 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS alum powder

Directions:

  • Place water, salt and koolaid in large saucepan, bring to boil. Then stir in the oil and the alum. Remove from heat immediately, dump all 3 cups of flour into liquid and stir until the dough sticks together and leaves sides of pan. Once dough is cool enough to handle, knead on a floured board until all lumps are gone. If dough sticks to hands, add more flour. Keep in airtight container, refrigerate until used.

Cake Decorating Paste Playdough – Recipe #6

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
cake decorating paste

Directions:

  • Cook all ingredients except the cake decorating paste over medium heat until dough forms consistency you want, stir constantly. Remove from heat and cool. Knead on floured board, adding the cake decorating paste as you do so. Keep kneading until dough is well blended with colour. Store in an airtight container or sealed plastic bag and refrigerate until used. *May also use food coloring rather than cake decorating paste.

Uncooked Playdough – Recipe #7

Ingredients:

3 cups boiling water
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups salt
1 1/2 TBS vegetable oil
3 tsp cream of tartar

Directions:

  • Mix all ingredients except for the flour in a large bowl. Once well mixed, add flour. Stir continuously until the dough mix leaves the sides of the bowl. Once well blended, remove from bowl and knead on floured board. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate.

More Uncooked Playdough – Recipe #8

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
3 cups boiling water
1 1/2 cups salt
6 tsp cream of tartar
3 TBS cooking oil

Directions:

  • Mix all dry ingredients together plus the cooking oil. Once well blended, add boiling water. Stir dough mixture until it leaves the sides of the bowl. Remove and knead well on floured boar. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Glitter Playdough – Recipe #9

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 tsp cream of tartar
food coloring
glitter

Directions:

  • Mix all ingredients together except for the glitter. Heat over medium heat until dough forms a ball, stir constantly. Remove from heat and add glitter. Knead well until lumps are gone and dough is smooth. Store in an airtight container, but do not refrigerate.

Fruity Fun Jell-O Playdough – Recipe #10

Ingredients:

1 (3-oz.) package sugar-free jello
2 cups flour
2 cups boiling water
1 cup salt
4 TBS cream of tartar
2 TBS oil

Directions:

  • Mix the dry ingredients in a saucepan then add the oil and the boiling water. Stir continuously over medium heat until dough forms into a ball. Remove from heat, knead. Store in an airtight container.

Tips:

  • If playdough is too sticky, just knead in more flour.
  • Always store in an airtight container or plastic bag.
  • Refrigerate until needed, unless noted otherwise.

Be careful:

Many of the recipes call for lots of salt, please keep playdough away from pets.

Bonus Recipe

Oh boy are the kiddos going to love this one…this feature tip is from My Family Loves It with a recipe for Chocolate & Peanut Butter Playdough:

I would only give it to the kids on plates because after they squished it and pounded it, it did stick to the plates a bit and I wouldn’t want it on my table. It didn’t stick to their hands though so you don’t have to worry about it being super sticky!

Please visit the link to get the recipe.

*Updated to add recipe and combine posts into one.

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First Published: December 12, 2006
Filed: Crafty Ideas

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Discussion

6 Comments to “10 Homemade Playdough Recipes”
  1. Barbara says:

    For a smooth and uniform color, stir the food coloring into the water before adding the water to the other ingredients.

  2. Adam says:

    You can add the glitter to every recipe as well for some extra sparkly fun :)

    Also has anyone thought about adding spices into the recipe. It makes it smell very nice. (depending on the spices)

  3. Cindy says:

    For “space” theme, add wiggly eyes to the playdough. It’s like alien eyes!

  4. Amy says:

    Add 1 tbsp vanilla essence to it for a great smell and a nicer texture (decrease other liquid to compensate)

  5. Laine says:

    Just remember, alum in quantities of an ounce or more is toxic to humans! It may make the play dough much more like the store bought kind, but with the USDA trying to wean us off our use of it due to it’s dangerous nature (it’s a salt/metal combo) I would rather stick to the other recipes.

  6. Jennifer says:

    We tried most of these recipes over time and Recipe #8 is by far the best! I recommend dividing into small portions after mixing to knead instead of trying to do it all at once.


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